Yahoo Lifestyle 'Found' Star Shanola Hampton Says She 'Hated' Filming Season 2 Without Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) is fed up with Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) coming for her team. In the Found Season 2 fall finale, which aired on NBC Thursday night, Sir revealed his master plan involves everyone at M&A. He's going to "fix" everyone that Gabi works for, and he's starting with Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta).
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Sir makes a surprise visit to the M&A tech guru's apartment and, through sheer rage and fear, convinces Zeke to step outside of the apartment before he realizes what's happening. Zeke passes out from the shock of what Sir has done, but it ultimately makes him more determined to find what DCPD is keeping from Gabi in Sir's intercepted notes.
We don't know what Sir tried to send to Gabi, but we know that it sent her over the edge. The closing scene of the episode saw Gabi brandishing a pair of brass knuckles and entering her old high school. Sir greeted her over the school intercom, teasing that they're about to have a showdown unlike anything we've seen before when Found returns in January.
The showdown comes as things at M&A are falling apart around Gabi. Dhan's (Karan Oberoi) marriage is deteriorating because he keeps prioritizing the work over his husband. Margaret (Kelli Williams) is taking a mandatory break after resurfaced memories of her son's kidnapping pushed her to almost drown herself at the beach. Zeke is banned from tech after the DCPD found out he hacked their system. Gabi is on an island, which makes her more determined than ever to get Sir behind bars so that M&A can get on with their lives.
Parade spoke to Hampton about the fall finale and what these loose threads mean for Gabi, Sir, and M&A when the show returns for the back half of the season next year.
Related: Everything to Know About Found Season 2
Gabi has been on a guilt rollercoaster this season after everyone found out about her kidnapping Sir. Where would you describe her on that ride as we go into the second half of the season?
It's a rollercoaster ride. Most of her understands [the guilt] and wants it. "Give it to me, give it to me," because she's abusing herself internally anyway. There come a point where you have apologized so much. And right now, our focus needs to be shifted from what I did to us figuring out how to get this jerk off the street. There's where she loses the line. She wants to be punished, but can we wait until we find Sir and stop him from hurting other people? It's not easy for her to deal with all the things she has going on internally because she spends so much energy on everyone else's healing and finding missing people every week. There's not a lot of room for her to get what she needs from the healing process.
In Season 1, Gabi was isolating herself for obvious reasons. At the beginning of the season, the team was icing her out. Now she's being separated from them by things out of her control. Margaret needs a break, and Zeke can't use his tech. What toll is that taking on Gabi?
It's more guilt. She doesn't have anyone to rely on. She can't rely on them right now. They are on the outs. The only person she has is Dhan. He's been the constant ride-or-die for her. She does lean on him in a way that is very co-dependent, but he is the person she can count on. She definitely uses that as her blanket for everyone else. She feels really badly that these choices have this fallout for them. That's not what she wanted.
So how does Gabi feel about Ethan's confrontation that she is ruining his and Dhan's marriage?
It's too much! Of everyone, that's her ride-or-die. God, please, go home and have happiness. For that to be broken...Dhan is always going to be there for her. She doesn't want it at the detriment of his marriage. It's difficult because she doesn't know how to navigate it. Dhan is also a grown man who can make his own grown-man decisions. If he chooses to help with a case instead of going to lunch with his husband, there's not much Gabi can do about that. At the core, she was there before Ethan. Gabi was helping him with the healing process. Dhan just has that place for Gabi in his heart, and for M&A and the work they do there.
The show found really creative ways to have Gabi and Sir interact in the first episodes of the season, but it's been a minute since we've seen them go toe to toe. How has it been playing Gabi without that energy directly across from you?
I hate it. That's the truth. Mark-Paul is my bestie. When we're together, everything is good, on and off-screen. It's been really, really difficult for me. I think it serves the story, obviously. We're doing what we have to do, but it has not been fun for me to not be in scenes with him in every episode. I do love as an audience and as a fan of the show not knowing where he's going to pop up or with whom. To watch him interact with Margaret and have all of these other interactions has been really cool, but for me personally, I hate it.
The fall finale teases that they are about to reunite. What can you tease about their next interaction when the show returns?
Gabi is down for whatever. Sir should be really, really careful because she might just jump him. She is done playing these games with him. You're going to get a typical Sir and Gabi interaction. What's atypical is the information that Sir is going to present to Gabi that she doesn't really see coming about another character on the show. It will leave her with questions, whether it's the truth, or what the heck is going on. Sir knows because he's ready for the interaction and Gabi is just coming in.
Related: Found Creator Teases 'Bigger Playground' for Gabi and Sir in Season 2.
He has this angle that he's going to "fix" Gabi's team. How invasive is it for her to know he's inserting himself into the lives of her people?
It's invasive on so many levels for Gabi, because that's her sole mission, right? She wants to make them feel whole and have them feel like their trauma hasn't defined them. That's why she built M&A. For him to step in and honestly make traction in ways that she hasn't been able to, like Zeke coming out of the house. She wouldn't go to the lengths that Sir went to for this, but he's more diabolical. Her family is off-limits. The rage that it causes for her that he has access to them and the guilt she has that he now has access to them is a lot. She's carrying a lot. Can Gabi get a new bag? This one is full.
No relationship in Gabi's life is simple, but one of the more complicated ones is her relationship with Brett Ward's Trent. How does that look in the back half of Season 2?
She's really annoyed with Trent at this point. He keeps saying about making her pay, but she wants the same thing. She just wants to make sure that her family is okay first, and then she'll come to [Trent]. It's becoming more personal for Trent, which is understandable, but we have all of these cases that we need to solve so back off. Let me fix my family, and then I'll go to jail.
What are you most excited for fans to see in the back half of the season?
I am excited that Sir is going to get some of what's coming to him. I'm excited that we get to dive in with Margaret more. I'm excited that you'll get to see a little more backstory of how Gabi and Sir came back together. I'm excited about a lot of things. Here's what's crazy to me. We are on NBC on Thursday nights and people are watching on Peacock and catching up. It's only been eight episodes of a 22-episode season. We're saying the "winter finale," but there is so much left. Everything ends on a cliffhanger, and it gets so much better.
Found Season 2 returns to NBC in January. The first eight episodes of Season 2 and all of Season 1 are streaming on Peacock.
